Sunday, February 8, 2009

Pics of the Haunted Hotel Vendome





Haunted Hotel Vendome



Yes, we got to stay in a haunted hotel on our road trip. I can put that on my list of things that I have done. It wasn't intentional, I just waited until the very last minute to book our stay in Sedona and Prescott. I was trying to keep our overnighters reasonably priced b/c we really weren't going to be in any one place for very long. I wanted both places to be within walking distance of the downtown areas so we could walk from place to place without having to worry about parking. I found a really cool hotel called the hotel Vendome that is marked as a historic building in Prescott. Well, after booking I started reading the reviews. I guess it is helpful to read reviews before booking versus after considering everyone wants a 48 hour cancellation notice. Anyway, I started reading and realized in a couple of the reviews they were mentioning a ghost. Yikes! The good news is that the person who wrote the review was very disappointed b/c he did not see any ghost. The ghost that supposedly haunts the Hotel Vendome was a former owner of the hotel, Abby Byr and her cat. I had spaced out the particular room number when we got there but I thought it would be pretty funny to tell the Gabster and get her all worked up. Well it worked. Was it worth it? Yes!!!!! It is a really cool place and it has lots of charm. We had two bedrooms connected by a bathroom. Did we see any ghost? No. We did have a weird experience with the bathroom light. It had an old fashioned bathroom with the clawfoot bathtub and the toilet tank hung above you so you had to pull a chain that hung down to flush. Anyway I don't know why I described the bathroom other than that is where the light incident happened. While I was in there the light went from dim to really bright. Of course as soon as that I happened I was trying to get out of there as fast as possible. Then I tried turning off the light. I couldn't get it to turn off. I tried both switches and nothing. Then I messed with the timer knob to the ceiling heater and nothing. I then told my story to JL and she said she had tried turning it off and couldn't get them to turn off either. I asked La Princesa if the timer had anything to do with the light and she didn't know so I gave it a try. It finally turned off. I then went to lay down on the bed while everyone changed into their pajamas. La Princesa went and turned off the light and was trying to convince Mama Mia to come and sleep with her. I got up to turn down the thermostat in our room when La Princesa caught me and asked me why I had turned the light back on. I told her I hadn't I was just turning down the thermostat and was no where near the bathroom. That is probably when she began panicking. Especially after her boyfriend researched it on the internet and confirmed our story.
She convinced Mama Mia to go over to her room. So I moved to the other room which worked out well b/c JL and I began working on a plan to scare the living daylights out of her. Well, before we could even come up with anything La Princesa called me on her cell phone. Yes, her cell phone. I guess she wanted to ensure the safety of Mama Mia back to the other bedroom and to convince me to come back to her room. She had decided that she would be better protected if I were over there. So she sent poor Mama Mia packing, back to the room she was originally in, and I went back to the room I was originally in. I then had to listen to La Princesa tell her story of hearing strange noises in the room. Which totally got me freaked out. Talk about a plan backfiring. Finally La Princesa drifted off to sleep after her boyfriend convinced her that the majority of ghosts are friendly ghosts. I think he even gave some kind of percentage which was probably totally made up but it made her feel better. She fell asleep and I was wide awake. I only heard one noise while I was still awake and then I fell fast asleep. We all survived the night. We woke up a bit stiff from the rock hard beds but the experience was a great one.